Abstract for: Exploring the interdependencies of entrepreneurial ecosystems using feedback-guided analysis for social enterprise resilience

Studies on developing social enterprises suggest that resilience can be achieved through supportive stakeholder relationships and networks in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This ecosystem is important for social enterprises as they are confronted with uncertain and complex conditions emerging from their pursuit of both social and commercial objectives which tend to reveal internal weaknesses and tensions. Although prior work on entrepreneurial ecosystem has made significant progress, the processes involved in interdependence need to be explored as they create and reproduce the overall ecosystem. This study attempts a shift of focus from the identification of individual components to a view which identifies entrepreneurial ecosystem as a complex and nonlinear system that changes, adapts, and evolves over time. The feedback-guided analysis using the cultural adaptation template is applied towards developing conceptual models to examine the interdependencies in the ecosystem aimed at relationships between and among cultural, environmental, political and social factors. This is done through documenting the experiences of Philippine social enterprises to understand the feedback structures that shape its entrepreneurial ecosystem. The models may serve as an assessment tool to determine management issues, its root causes and the non-obvious interactions that shape system performance over time.